Awards & Nominations
Game Over has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Global Nominee
Maclen Energy System
High-Level Project Summary
For this challenge, we thought to use what we had the most: the heat. We found a way to utilize this abundant resource of Venus and developed a Sterling Engine to produce electricity. With the use of the difference between heat and cold plates, we create a motion through a piston, which is then used to generate electricity. Our system also focuses on protection from heat, storms, and sulfuric rains that are common on Venus. What is unique about our project is how simple, yet genius its design is. It is quite light, yet extremely resilient and strong. Additionally, our project is not simply a way to store energy, but a method of generating electricity that hopefully can serve a long time.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
When we were designing our energy system we encountered several options: a solar battery, wind-powered battery, nuclear reactor, et cetera. Upon a bit of consideration, all of them fell apart. So we decided to use Venus is notorious for its heat. We made a Stirling engine, which is a method of generating electricity through heat and cold. Since the source of heat is already apparent, we thought about how to preserve and maintain a temperature in which: a} the electronics could work without any disturbance, and b} the difference between the temperatures of cold and hot plates was enough to produce sufficient electrical power. For insulation, we used a total of 4 layers of protection: first outside layer : a zirconium shield, which is resilient to the sulfuric acid of Venus (which is known for its sulfuric rains), and is quite reflective, which means it doesn't absorb the heat and can provide a layer of protection, for it is very strong. The middle layer is a carbon foam, which is mostly composed o a vacuum, which is also conducive to our goal of insulation. The other layer, which covers it from both sides is called tantalum carbide, which provides additional protection from both heat and any collision, storms and et cetera. All the layers of protection are highly resilient the heat, and can withstand the atmospheric pressure of that planet.
As for the energy system, we used the Sterling Engine design, because we wanted to use the heat from Venus in a helpful way. For both cold and hot plates, we used granite which can stand high temperatures and conduct heat well. The heat moves back and forth, therefore moving the piston which in exchange moves the power piston. The power piston rotates the wheel, which turns mechanical energy into electricity through a stator (that uses the principle of induction and magnetism to create electricity). The stator is a to two sets of batteries. For these batteries, we chose to use Sodium Sulfate batteries, due to their higher endurance to heat and a long time serve compared to Lithium Ion batteries. In case of overheating, the cold plate can have fins placed to further increase efficiency. On top of that, a water-based cooler can be used to lower the temperature in case of overheating. We used "Blender" for our 3D modeling and "Canva" for our presentation and demo project. Our system is straightforward to implement. We truly put our heart and soul into this. With no person to assist us, we took on this difficulty and shoot our best shot. We had to go through a lot of information and issues to arrive at a conclusion. We are extremely happy we did not give up, and we truly hope this project will have an impact on NASA's future space explorations, even if this impact is extremely small. Verily, hard work is never left unappreciated.
Space Agency Data
https://techport.nasa.gov/view/92914
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1519/venus-resources/?page=0&per_page=40&order=created_at+desc&search=&tags=Venus&category=324
https://www.nasa.gov/venus/
Hackathon Journey
When we initially took on this Hackaton, we were a group of five with huge ambitions and plans, but due to some circumstances three people from our group left. We were devastated and did not know what to do. We had big plans with our group, and now with only two of us left we thought we can not succeed. The rollercoaster of emotions and plans mentally exhausted us, but we still decided to continue and not give up on this project.
Now our job was much more difficult. We had to do the job that 5 people had to do, and it was not an easy task. Having to go through every bit of detail and information for our design, having to search for the right materials, the right system to implement was exhausting but also exciting. We put our blood, sweat and tears into this, going over every possible case and every potential consideration, trying to find the best option for the purpose of our project. We were scared at the beginning that we would not succeed, and that the lack of any person who could help us we would eventually fail. But it had to be done.
We were reaching closer and closer to our goal, overcoming all the hinderances along the way, fighting all the battles, be that the mental battle or technical ones. There were a lot of reasons why we should have given up, but we are extremely happy that we did not give into our fears and kept going forward. We learned a lot while reaching our aim, from engineering science to how to organize our tasks. It was truly an amazing and exciting experience, and if we had a chance to turn back time, we would absolutely do it again.
References
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/1.41886
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/176628/new-record-worlds-most-heat-resistant/
Tools: Canva for presentation and Demo Project
Blender: For 3D Model
Paint for sketching
https://www.remove.bg for changing photo format to png
Tags
#Venus #BestHackathon #Engineering #USA #GameOver